Louisiana AG wins appeal against 'corrosive' Zuckerbucks politicizing election administration

Just The News ^ | Updated: April 8, 2022 | Natalia Mittelstadt

[T Ruth]

Private donations from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg were used "to manipulate state law in a way that they could harvest ballots," asserts Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry won an appeal last week against private, "Zuckerbucks"-style funding for state elections, arguing that it's not the government's job "to entice people to go vote."

Landry told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckberberg, who spent nearly $400 million on city and county voting operations in the 2020 presidential election, found loopholes in the law.

"He ... found a way to manipulate the laws," Landry said. "In Louisiana, we saw it coming. ... We kept a bulk of the money out of the state of Louisiana."

By the time Landry filed the lawsuit in October 2020, more than 20 officials in the state had applied for Zuckerbucks through the Center for Tech and Civic Life, but after he warned that the grants were illegal, most of them stopped pursuing them, according to The Federalist. The parishes of Orleans and Calcasieu were exceptions, accepting more than $810,000 in grants.

Landry's lawsuit was initially dismissed, but the appellate court reversed the lower court's decision on March 30, sending it back to the trial court.

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"And we believe — they kind of virtue-signaled — that this source of funding could be prohibited under state law. So we look forward to going to the trial court and basically conducting discovery, and doing some depositions, so we can see what exactly is going on."

While the Zuckerbucks were purportedly for PPE and helping municipalities run elections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Landry said he had "absolutely" no doubt that they were used for more than that.

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[loucon]

Source “The Advocate” by Sam Karlin

What remains unclear is what happens to the more than $800,000 that Orleans and Calcasieu parishes accepted from the nonprofit. While almost every local official interested in the donations backed off after Landry came out against the effort, Orleans Parish Clerk of Court Arthur Morrell ultimately accepted $614,000 from CTCL, and the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury accepted $200,000, according to the organization’s tax filings.

[deport]

Keep the money flowing..... Rawhide

[T Ruth]

What remains unclear is what happens to the more than $800,000

With this ruling, the AG can use the court discovery process to find out.